Philipp Schöpke has trouble getting through elementary school. As an adult, soon he is considered an idiot. He joins the German army, but the psychological tests reveal that he is incapable of remaining in the service. He is diagnosed as a manic-depressive. At the beginning of his hospitalization, he acts very self-assured and talks about replacing the Chancellor of the Reich; in his depressive phases, he just wants to die and spends weeks in bed, silent. In 1956, he is permanently institutionalized. From 1981 he has been living in the Haus der Künstler, Gugging.